Insert Witty Title Here
by PeacockBlue
Summary: I'm tired of reading Naruto crossover fics that've been abandoned half way through. To remedy this, I have shamelessly dropped a whole load of Naruto characters into the Inheritance Cycle somewhere between the first and second part of the chunin exam arc.
1. Chapter 1

_**Disclaimer: if you think I own either of these fab fandoms, you are mad. If I owned IC, Eragon and Arya would end up together in Inheritance and if I owned Naruto, NaruHina would be a large part of the storyline and Hinata would have built up the courage to go out and tell him how she feels after – or even before! – the time-skip happens, leading to some fluff.**_

_**AN - For simplicity's sake, everyone can understand everyone in this, unless they're speaking the Ancient Language or I specifically put the terms in. There is no language barrier between the normal English-speaking characters and the shinobi from Konoha. Happy? If not, then **__**it's all magic! Magic is letting them speak to each other!**__** Happy **__**now**__**?!**_

Eragon was meditating a little way away from the main Varden camp when his hearing of near-elvish sensitivity, for which he gave great thanks to the dragons at the Agaeti Blohdren, picked up a slightly muffled pop and a brief surge of energy in the forest on his left. His meditation-calmed mind brushed it off and put the mild disturbance aside to muse upon later, when he returned to his usual state of consciousness. He breathed in deeply and moved his mind to study the intricacies of the process a spider was using to weave her silver web.

"Oooof!" Naruto breathed out in a rush. That Rock Lee kid may have been skinny, but he weighed a _ton_. Being at the bottom of a shinobi dog-pile was not nearly as fun as it sounded. He shifted. Yup, that felt like a branch poking into the middle of his back and a sharp stone was pressing uncomfortably into the back of his head. He risked opening his eyes a fraction, only to be confronted with the not-so-lovely vision that was Sasuke's backside. He took a deep breath and shouted at the top of his voice.

"GET OFF OF ME!" was hurled at the pile of bodies on top of him at a volume that would have deafened anyone not in regular contact with Naruto. As it was, the main part of the heap suffocating him just sighed in exasperation and began to move. Slowly. At last, the only one holding him down was Sasuke, who had shifted the precise amount needed to give him the best leverage while giving the maximum comfort.

"THAT MEANT YOU TOO, TEME!" Naruto yelled at Sasuke who did nothing but wriggle on his teammate's stomach where he was sitting until he was unceremoniously hurled off when the blond-haired personification of hyperactivity decided to take matters into his own hands and summoned a couple of clones to throw the revenged-obsessed Uchiha off him.

"Hn," Sasuke brushed the assorted dirt, dust and leaf litter off his clothes from where he had landed on the forest floor. "Way to alert the entire country to our presence, dobe."

Meanwhile, the two jounin sensei had been in a huddle, discussing something that, judging by what could be heard from Gai's loud outbursts, was about scouting out the area, setting up a watch to look out for potential hostile forces and discovering where exactly they were.

Eragon opened his eyes and stretched, releasing the tension in his muscles gained from sitting down for a good few hours. He began to process all that he had heard and felt during his meditation, getting up and walking over to his tent. His smooth stride hitched as he recalled the hushed noise he had heard that had been followed swiftly by a sudden surge of energy. He immediately altered his path, sending a mental call to Saphira to ask for her aid in a potential confrontation.

_I am on my way, little one_, she reassured him, sending him a series of impressions of the sapphire-blue dragoness turning around from her hunting trip and flying back at full speed. He allowed himself a brief smile from the limitless warmth and love that flowed from her into him and vice-versa before closing his eyes and taking in a measured, unhurried breath, reading himself for combat with another magic user. He tightened his mental armour and silently ran through a checklist of all potential spells that could help along with the situations that he could find himself in which was quite long, given the limited information. The young Rider did not dare extend his mind to search the area the strange noise had come from in case he should find himself in mental combat with one or more strong magicians while a batch of soldiers was sent around to capture him even as he was occupied with the struggle to gain mastery over his opponent's thoughts. Silent as a cat, he moved through the foliage towards the origin of the mysterious disturbance.

It was Neji's byakugan that alerted them to the intruder. He had taken the first watch in their designated base camp, rather than suffer through Gai and Lee's seemingly endless rock-paper-scissors battles that were, for some reason, deemed more 'youthful' than drawing lots to determine who got which job. The rest had split up into small teams of two or three, leaving him with the unbelievably irritating Naruto and the useless Sakura who was rummaging around in one of the tents that Kakashi had unsealed from a seemingly insignificant scroll pulled out from somewhere inside his vest. Neji and Sakura hadn't needed to share a look to assign guard duty to the blond while they put it up because, after all, this was _Naruto _they were talking about. He signalled to Naruto in a movement that would, to an outsider, have seemed like a casual shift to get more comfortable against the log he was sitting on. He had his back to whoever who was trying to sneak up on them, so it was unlikely that he knew he had been discovered, especially as the person in question was behind a tree.

The hyperactive blond leaped up from the fire Sasuke had made with a very controlled fireball. "I'm gonna go see if Kakashi-sensei's found something to eat, Neji!" he was out of the clearing almost before he finished speaking and ran off to confer with two clones he had made earlier for precisely this situation. He and the clone switched and the original ran to ambush the person Neji had seen while one clone returned to Neji and the other ran off to inform Kakashi before dispelling itself.

Naruto moved through the trees more stealthily than anyone who was in contact with him for more than ten seconds would have believed possible. Before long, he was looking down at the man who was spying on them. He grinned; although it had not been determined whether he was hostile or just a curious woodsman, that was no reason why he couldn't freak him out a bit. Sending more chakra to his feet and lower legs, he walked around the branch he was standing on until he was upside down, drawing on the exercises Kakashi had put Team 7 through in the Wave. He drew attention to himself with a loud cough, arms folded and, for what was possibly the first time in his life, a serious expression on his face.

Eragon had found a tree to sit behind, choosing to preserve his energy for the potentially upcoming fight rather than go in to the strange people's camp with the light rays bent around him; it was a very taxing spell. There was no sign that the two could use magic, so he felt safe to send a call to Saphira, asking where she was, and to Arya to ask her to come to his aid in case they should be more than they appeared. He was drawn out of his silent communication by a loud cough. Not betraying the surprise he felt, he extended his mind to search for the cougher and encountered a weak wall of thoughts about a man named Kakashi who was on his way. Effortlessly, Eragon broke through his mind and discovered as much about him as he could without alerting the boy to his presence. Once his search was over, he withdrew and looked around only for his eyes to widen in shock as he caught sight of a strange form of dress that was so brightly orange, it was near-blinding to his sensitive elven eyes, especially when compared to the muted greens, browns and greys of the surrounding forest. He blinked, then shook his head slightly in disbelief.

"How did you come to be up there?" he asked the upside-down boy.

"It's easy. No big deal," the blond replied off-handedly, belying the difficulties he had encountered when learning the method. He had to restrain himself from smiling wryly when he saw the strange man's expression, so similar to his own when Kakashi had first demonstrated the technique on their first C-rank mission.

"But you are a mere _child_," Eragon gasped, having checked the blond's species, only to find that he was human, visibly at least.

"Hey!" Naruto's cool façade broke for the first time. "I'm a legal adult!" he pouted.

_Legal, yes. Mental? No. _Saphira, to whom Eragon had been relaying the conversation between himself and the blond boy, observed.

_How long until you get here? _He asked the dragon.

_Look up!_

Saphira lowered herself onto the ground as close to as Eragon she could manage without hitting him with her wings by accident. Naruto, on the other hand, was not so lucky. One of the spikes on her wings clipped his chin, making him lose his concentration and tumble to the ground, flipping just in time to avoid hurting himself on landing, but too late to make it look like he had descended of his own choice. Eragon could not stop the smile tugging the up corners of his smile at seeing the disgruntled expression on the face of the blond, swiftly replaced by disbelief as he stared at Saphira.

"I believe," Eragon calmly stated as the blond scrambled to his feet and backed away from the dragon slightly "That we have the advantage. Tell me your name, intentions and the identity of your travelling companions."

Naruto's only response was to throw out a few kage bunshins and to move into a ready position, hands slipping into his pockets to finger his kunai anticipatorily. Eragon was taken aback at the sudden appearance of the multiple copies of the blond, wreathed in smoke. He instantly altered his original assessment of the boy and launched a full-out attack on his mind, only to be surprised at the ease with which his mind slipped into his opponent's. Swiftly moving from one piece of information to another, he learned that the clones could be dispelled by one blow and that, so long as he could not move his hands, this boy named Naruto would pose no threat. With little strain, he immobilised him and, dancing from one clone to another, put the bare minimum of force into each hit and wiped out the identical horde. He turned to face the boy – Naruto – and prepared to ask his questions again. He had barely opened his mouth when Saphira's spiked tail swept the clearing, only just giving him enough warning to evade the strike.

The white-haired man and dark-haired boy now sprawling on the floor weighed down by Saphira's paws, her talons digging lightly enough into their backs to let them know that she could press just that much harder, were not so lucky.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:**

_A few things that, for sure, I own_

Are my wardrobe, laptop and mobile phone.

Although I wish that these were mine,

To say that they are is a punishable crime.

Yeah, I got bored so you get your disclaimer in a (rubbish) little poem. Lucky you!

Sasuke sent the patented Uchiha Glare in the direction of the sword-wielding brunet who had somehow managed to shut up the orange dobe and beat his clones, all without any discernible effort. It is generally difficult to look menacing when the menac_er _is twelve years old, covered in earth, twigs and leaf litter and is pinned on the ground, but the menac_ee_ could feel the chill sent in his direction. He was, however, used to much worse in the heat of battle and therefore ignored it, moving his attention over to the white-haired adult, all the while exerting the minimal strain required to keep the strange orange-clothed boy motionless. He briefly made eye contact with Saphira and nodded, needing no words to ask her to discover all she could from the one-eyed man's mind.

The masked man did not have a chance as Saphira ripped through the natural shields in his mind. Her nature meant that she took no trouble in being gentle to save him from any pain caused by her search although she drew no visible winces, a rarity when she searched someone who had attacked her Rider. Eragon found it hard to feel a great measure of compassion for the man, mainly due to the fact that he and the boy had attacked first and had to know the dangers; there were few in these parts with his angled features, all but one were elves and they all were with the Varden. Besides, if they had burst out so soon after his defeat of the orange boy, they had to have seen his speed and strength. It was, he decided, a pleasant change fighting a foe that merely dissolved into smoke once hit rather than showering him with blood although, he frowned as his thoughts took a more unpleasant turn, the boy had much power to be able to make these tangible clones of himself. Under the laws of magic, doing so more than once should have killed him through overexertion. And why had they attacked? They did not wear the uniform of the Empire, nor did they make any mention of 'blasted rebels'. It was, he eventually decided, a puzzle.

Saphira finished with her interrogation and re-opened up her mental walls before communicating what she had learned with Eragon. None of the strange intruders could use magic as they knew it and therefore could not attack their open minds from a distance although they had some disturbing techniques; she had gleaned some knowledge of a killing method known as a 'chidori', but had not lingered long enough to know how it worked. Another thing she had learned was that these people had their names the wrong way around; family name before personal name. That was another thing too. They had a name passed down the family instead of taking their father's or mother's name after their own. It was… strange.

"So," a voice broke the silence, "Hatake Kakashi is your name? And you are Uzumaki Naruto with the Last Loyal Uchiha," catching said boy's irritation-filled glance towards him, Eragon shrugged. "That is how he thinks of you. Aim the glare at your teacher if you dislike it." Turning back to the white-haired man, he continued to talk. "I believe you should call over the rest of your group. We mean no harm to you if you intend no further injury to us."

_Is this a good plan, little one? Think carefully; these people would have no hindrance towards killing you in your sleep should they decide to do so. They could be a danger._

_But I know you wouldn't let them do that to me, Saphira, _he replied playfully.

_If they do kill you, do not come crying to me, _she replied with an unusual lack of sympathy and reared her head back so she could gaze into the sky, her attention caught by the large flock of birds suddenly taking off in another part of the forest. _They seem alarmed. Could it be the others that he attempted to hide from me? Or could we have been found by the Empire?_

_Keep them pinned. I shall communicate with Nasuada. _The Rider then proceeded to dig a small bowl in the soft earth and fill it with water before muttering the words that would allow him to communicate with his leader, Nasuada.

"Eragon." Her voice was clipped and he could see stress-lines on her dark face. "What news do you have?"

He then proceeded to give her a full run-down of what had happened with these people, ending with the disturbing findings of Saphira's search. "Should I bring them back to camp?" he waited for the order.

"Yes. I would like to meet with these shinobi," she rolled the unfamiliar word around her mouth as ever, getting the flavour of it and giving it a full analysis before allowing it to fly freely into the air. "They may prove to be valuable allies, if what you say of their fighting skills is correct."

He nodded and ended the spell, looking across the small break in the otherwise crowded forest, to meet the single eye of the only adult in the small group he had encountered. He stared back, his one visible eye crinkled into an upside down crescent, the only sign of the smile that had to be under his mask. The young Rider raised a single eyebrow – a trick he had learned with much practice in front of mirrors – when he saw the contortion the man was using to enable him to meet the level gaze of the teen standing in front of him.

"Saphira,"He quietly and softly called her name, needing to say no more for her comprehension. The scintillating blue mass that was the other half of his being reluctantly let the two go while Eragon released the hyperactive blond from his mental shackles. The blond scowled at him in a way that would have been unnerving had he not been so small, cute and _orange._ "I have spoken to my leader a-"

"She has expressed interest in our strength being used against your enemies." The white-haired man butted in.

"So you managed to eavesdrop while I was conversing, despite the fact that I had my back to you and you could not have heard me – us – from where you were. How, I wonder?"

"I could tell you," he started, brushing the leaf litter and dust off his green jacket, "but then I'd have to kill you." The kunai held in his hand had been flipped out of his pouch too quickly for human eyes to follow and was held in a ready position to show this boy that he would hold no regret in following up on his threat, only to put it away with a smile as he held his hands out to show that he was holding no weapons. Eragon put Brisingr back in its sheath and returned his hands to his sides before striding over to Saphira and settling between her forelegs so he could search for their group while protected by the fierce dragoness.

_**There! **_He found the unusual minds of the ones he was searching for, including two that had unusually strong natural barriers about 'YOUTH!' and 'HARD WORK!'. He lingered only long enough to establish where they were before returning his mind to himself, carefully missing the consciousness of the girl he had earlier discovered could enter others' minds

"Follow me. You will not move more than you must, if you disagree I shall have to put your arms into disuse, _shinobi_, whether it is necessary to merely tie them or to go… further." He allowed the threat to tail off in order to let their, most likely, over-active imaginations fill in the blanks more effectively than he could. The threatened ones, however, looked decidedly unimpressed and met his eyes with flat stares.

"Was that supposed to intimidate us?" Sasuke demanded. "Because if it was, you are not trying hard enough."

"Yeah!" the blond idiot burst in, "You didn't even pull out a kunai or anything. The teme's more threatening than you are!"

Said teme swivelled his head around to meet Naruto's excited blue eyes. "Hn," he grunted, in a way that Naruto interpreted as 'Thank you Naruto, I'm touched."

At this, Saphira carefully showed every single one of her needle-sharp, ivory fangs, curling her azure lips in a snarl and a low rumble sounded low in her chest. Her sapphire eyes met the eyes of each of the others in turn, silently promising a painful death to each and every one of them should they do something she disliked. Even the famed Copy-nin whimpered as she puffed smoke into his face, emitting more killer intent than he had ever been on the receiving end of before.

_Any complaints? _She asked them.

"H-how did she get into m-my head?"

Eragon turned to face Sasuke. "This is why I felt no need to make more concrete threats. After all, who would go against an overgrown lizard," this was said affectionately, scratching her behind one of her ears, "With a mouthful of teeth bigger and sharper than swords and the ability to release a ball of flame cooking them where they stand?"

_Who indeed? _Saphira replied to him wryly.

"Will you come quietly and talk with my leader? I assure you that we bear you no ill will, and I dislike conflict with possible allies and, in fact, all those who bear no allegiance to the Empire." _Saphira, stop scaring them. We need them to be able to talk coherently with Nasuada._

_They are stronger than you think, little one. Stronger, in fact, than most round-ears._

Neji had seen all of this with his Byakugan and was marvelling to himself of this stranger's strength. He was fast, powerful and seemed to have something like the Yamanaka bloodline, only infinitely more potent. Not to mention his bond with this 'overgrown lizard' who could, it would appear, also make mind-to-mind contact effortlessly. Two beings this powerful… It could only be fate.

He waited to make sure they had left for that Nasuada person before he took his hand from Sakura's mouth. Motioning for her to stay put, he took to the trees and started to round up the others, secretly wondering if he could 'lose' Lee and Gai-sensei without it looking suspicious before resigning himself to the prospect of the horrific green spandex in exchange for safety in numbers. He had heard the man's assurance that he didn't want to hurt them, but distrusted him after years of being trodden on by those in a position of power over him. He first found Shikamaru, Ino and Chouji and sent them off to back up Sakura at their campsite. Knowing the Nara genius, he would return and find it to be one of the most secure places possible with the ingenious traps the lazy genin would think up after sufficient badgering from the screeching Ino.

Meawhile, Kakashi had been talking to Lady Nasuada in the most ingratiating manner he could without actually kneeling on the floor in front of her. She was, after all, holding his cute students at swordpoint and had some strange-looking bodyguards that were bowing their horned heads at him in a very threatening manner. And that wasn't even glancing at the short people and the few that looked eerily similar to the teen by whom they had been apprehended in the first place.

"Why do you hesitate to show your face?" the dark-skinned woman in front of him demanded.

And that was another thing; he'd spent his entire life hiding behind the mask that half-covered his face and most of it with half of what was left visible covered by his hitai-ate, putting up with curious civilians, genin, chunin and even jounin trying to look under them both had left him wary of anyone who attempted to strip away the thin layer of fabric that hid his features from the world.

"I prefer not to show my face for reasons of my own," he replied, in an attempt to throw her mind off track. Why did this have to happen? He felt an overwhelming urge to reach behind him and pull out his trusty _Icha Icha _to just make it all go away.

"Kakashi-sensei's probably just really ugly under there and doesn't want the ladies to find out!" the little ball of sunshine grinned at her, his natural charm disarming the frosty face presented to them.

His favourite knuckle-headed genin to the rescue with a brilliantly timed distraction! Kakashi silently thanked any deity that was out there looking out for him then returned his attention to the military leader in front of him.

"Very well. Eragon, I believe it would be prudent to do a full scan to ensure they are not spies for the Empire."

He inclined his head and slowly walked towards the first recipient of the in-depth search, the blond boy. Eragon closed his eyes and extended his consciousness to overlap with Naruto's, slipping gently into his head, meeting some severe resistance on the way in and having to call on Saphira's superior strength to enter.

_He was standing mid-calf deep in water, a dim light illuminating what little he could see. This boy had a mind-scape? That in itself was a great rarity and was an indicator of great mental strength. He could remember Oromis going over the subject briefly when he had been asked to explain something the boy had not understood on a scroll he had been given. The mind-scape was a reflection of the person's sense of self, but that had been all; his teacher had refused to elaborate further on it, preferring instead to instruct him on something more relevant to his studies._

_The young Rider started to move forwards, towards the eerie glow that, he felt, emitted from the centre of the boy's consciousness. He could hear water trickling down the walls, dripping down from the ceiling and sloshing around him every time he lifted a foot. It felt thicker than water should be, it felt sticky and resisted slightly when he tried to remove a foot from it and he had to press down harder than would be expected to get the surface to break and to allow his boot to pass through the barrier._

_He came to a fork in the small underground river. _Right? Or left?_ He asked himself. The light was split equally between the two branches. His eyes picked up ripples in the water coming from the right branch. Odds were that the boy had gone right to the centre of his being whereas he, an outsider, had been left on the outskirts and forced to make his way in. Right it was, then._

_He got closer to where he assumed the representation of the boy to be, darting nervous glances around him. Something about this place unsettled him. _

"What're you doing here?"_ the representation of the boy was, in his mind, smaller, younger, frightened and more vulnerable than would be expected. _"Get away!"_ he started to push Eragon away from the cage he caught sight of._

"What is behind those bars?" _he asked._

_A paw swiped towards him, claws gleaming in the light. Using his super-human speed, he evaded it and moved the boy to safety._

"What was that?" _he demanded._

"Even my teammates don't know. I mean, I'm pretty sure Kakashi-sensei knows, but…"

"But what?"

_The boy ignored him, continuing his train of thought. _"Mizuki-teme knew. And he hated me for it. If I tell anyone, they're gonna hate me for it as well. Just being ignored was bad enough. If they **knew**…"

"Knew what?" _Eragon was getting impatient, wanting to know what secret could have caused the child in front of him to be ostracised by his peers so badly that the bouncy, smiley, brash boy was, in reality, nothing but a mask for the sensitive and uncertain child in front of him. _

"You've seen it already. There's no difference made if I tell you." _He took a deep breath, mentally steeling himself to tell this man his secret. _"I'm the container for the Kyuubi, the nine-tailed demon fox."

_**AN - If you were wondering why Eragon didn't notice Neji and Sakura while doing his mind-scan-thingy, we all have unobservant moments. Like when you're trying to find a set of keys and, after tearing the house upside down for an hour or so, find them hanging perfectly innocently on the hook. And remember; Eragon's never seen a sewer like that before. And I'm sorry if any of you thought Sasuke was Gai in the last chapter!**_

_**I've been agonising over this for several days now, worrying about whether it's alright. I must say that I am tempted to hold this to review ransom but, considering how much I dislike it when I read something really good (or in my case, not **_**terrible**_**) and the author has said 'no more until I get ten reviews', I decided against it. Still, the more reviews I get, the more inspired I am to write.**_

So:

_**Review! **_


	3. Chapter 3

Heya, all my lovely readers!

*email voice*  
_"You have **2** new messages."_

_1) My exams are finally OVER! *throws a party* So that means I can finally return to writing my stuff and you can hopefully look forwards to reading some new stuff :)_

_2) I love you all, oh great reviewers and I beg for more attention and more reviews (reviews make me happy and when I'm happy I write more, so you're just doing yourselves a favour if you review)_

So keep reading, keep reviewing and I love you all :)

_Blue_


	4. Chapter 4

_**Hey! Thanks for sticking with this so far and thanks for all follows/favourites/reviews. Just so you know, from this chapter forwards, anything in the Ancient Language that either I do not know or is more than one or two words (because I'm lazy like that), I will put in English, but **__**underlined**__**. Got it? Fab.**_

_**Disclaimer: what's the difference between Naruto's ownership and a bag of dismembered blondes*? I don't **_**have**_** Naruto's ownership hidden under my bed…**_

"Why have you been ostracised for something like that? When I put water in a bowl, the wood does not fall to the ground as a liquid. And what is a 'cube-ee'?" _He reasoned, trying to console the boy in front of him, yet unfamiliar with the words that had been used. From what he understood, sealing was a method of putting one thing inside another but, for all he knew, he could have been drastically wrong._

"Twelve years ago, on the day I was born, the Yondaime sealed that fox into me, killing himself in the process. The villagers take their revenge on the fox for the rampage it went on when it destroyed half the village and for k-killing the most popular Hokage in Konoha's history. My idol."

_Eragon felt his heart go out to this child, abused for something he could not help. _"I do not hate you, nor do I distrust you for something that is clearly not your fault; how could you have killed a man or destroyed a village when you were but a newly born child? The villagers should praise you as a saviour, if the fox was as destructive as you claim. I shall not reveal your secret without your permission, I swear it." _he ignored the confused glance sent by the blond in his direction, choosing instead to exit and return to reality._

He blinked and swayed gently, having to become re-accustomed to his physical body before he could speak.

"This boy means us no harm and, so far as he knows, neither do his companions. In fact, I believe they would make valuable allies for the Varden, if what I have seen is true." He ruffled the hair on Naruto's head, making it stick up even more than usual and smiles graced the faces of the two of them.

_And the kid's done it again, _Kakashi thought fondly. Naruto's ability to gather loyal friends and a large surrogate family around him was not well-known, not even in his home village. He had seen it in action first with the Hyuuga heiress's affections that the poor, oblivious boy had yet to notice and not long ago with Zabuza and Haku on their first C-rank. Even Iruka, who had tried to treat him like any other student, had ended up as some kind of surrogate father or older brother figure and had, after the teams had been decided, come to have a 'talk' with him about what would happen if Naruto was hurt in any way. Why that man had not gone past chunin, he did not know. In 'Mother Hen' mode, Umino Iruka had even an experienced jounin terrified and close to soiling his underwear.

"Well, if that's all settled up, I've got to see if Neji's paranoia has blown the situation out of all proportion yet. Sasuke, with me. Naruto, stay here."

Sasuke, ever a man of few words and fewer emotions, nodded.

"Awww, Kakashi-sensei, why does the teme get to come on the retrieval with you? I wanna come!"

"No, please stay here Naruto. I would like to learn more about your home and your life."

It felt terrible to see the boy's face light up at the fact that a stranger would willingly spend time with him and Eragon mentally wished ill luck on all those who had shunned the boy to the extent that the slightest show of affection had him shining with the greatest of joys.

Back at the little circle of tents that had been meant to contain all of the visitors from the other world, being held was, according to Neji's flair for the dramatic, a council of war. The intended seriousness of it was being set back by the sheer enthusiasm of the repeated cries coming from his embracing idiot teammate and sensei.

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Oh, Lee!"

"Oh, Gai-sensei!"

He groaned, barely resisting the urge to face-palm or to slam his head into a nearby tree; a Hyuuga could _never_ be seen to do anything so undignified in public, and rarely did such a thing even in private. He looked around the little circle, mentally listing those who were actually listening.

The number was depressingly low. Shikamaru was lying down, gazing calmly at the clouds visible through the leaves above them, Ino and Sakura were hyperventilating over the possibility that their _Sas-kay-kuuuun_ could have been badly injured - or worse, his pretty face could have been scratched! His hated Main House failure of a cousin was biting her lip and fiddling with her fingers in worry about that baka Naruto. The one person who was taking in every word he said was TenTen, his personal fangirl. Even the normally serious and focused Aburame was playing with his insects.

He could feel a headache coming on and no, it wasn't from paranoid over-use of his Bloodline.

Well, not _only_.

Speaking of said Bloodline, he activated it automatically as he heard faint noises in the undergrowth. Whoever was approaching clearly felt no need to conceal themselves, and were therefore very dangerous. Neji jumped to his feet, his hand moving of its own accord to his weapons pouch as he turned, changing his position to a defensive crouch, fingers ready to flick the cold metal at the attackers only to falter in surprise as he caught sight of the two Sharingan wielders.

"…So we've all been invited to stay and help in their war." Kakashi finished his – unusually full – explanation after convincing the suspicious genin that yes, it was the infamously late copy-nin and no, he was not being forced to do this and _yes, Neji, he was sure about it all!_

"Troublesome," Shikamaru quite accurately summed up the situation in one word, mentally blocking out the fangirls' squeals of relief that 'their' _Sas-kay-kuuun_ was alright.

So, with much fuss, the tents were packed up and sealed away and the fire put out before they returned to the Varden's camp, jumping through the treetops. They arrived outside a sea of tents, resisting the urge to blink in the sudden sunlight after being in the shadowed forest for so long.

"Hey, Sakura-chaaaaan!"

And they were greeted by, in the pink-haired girl's opinion, the most annoying blond in Konoha, if not the whole Fire Country. Said blond was waving energetically at the small group as they jumped gracefully down from the trees and landed soundlessly in front of the dark-skinned leader of this 'Varden' Kakashi had briefed them about, supported and protected by a fairly large group of ruthless-looking soldiers of mixed races. They were well-disciplined; the only sign of the surprise they must have felt was a brief widening of the eyes and a few quick once-overs to look for inhuman traits, stopping at Sakura's bright hair and the Hyuuga cousins' pale and silvery eyes.

"Are those two… blind?"

The ninja – well, the comparatively untrained genin – swapped surprised glances. _Everyone_ who'd had some form of decent education had heard of the Hyuuga Bloodline and associated benefits. The few who hadn't were un-noteworthy, never a likely threat and there was genuine confusion in their eyes – how could a blind person see to jump through the trees at such speed?

The Hyuuga clan was very well-known throughout the Elemental Countries – one of the classes in the various Ninja Academies included learning about the most dangerous and numerous Bloodlines of their own and of other countries, although the less impressive and rarer Bloodlines were often ignored in favour of flashier and more dangerous ones. Similarly, the smaller clans were looked at in less detail than those larger in population.

These people, however, did not look like civilians; they were carrying weapons with an ease that showed they had been training for a long time and had often used them in the heat of battle, and yet… they had failed to recognise the signs of one of the most famous (or infamous, depending upon the country) of the known Bloodlines. The genin looked to the two jounin sensei for instruction and guidance before Kakashi spoke up from where he had been leading the little group.

"They have the best awareness of their surroundings of all of us," he said, holding back a snigger about the not-so-inside joke. "Their eyes are a clan trait."

The slightly grubby man who was at the head of the group in front of them nodded before sweeping his gaze over to Sakura.

"… Pink. Her hair… is pink."

"I told you, Forehead, no-one'll take you seriously as a ninja if you have pink hair!" gloated Ino.

"Don't call me Forehead, Ino-pig!"

Meanwhile, away from this girly spat, a slightly different conversation was taking place between Kakashi and the NightHawk shift captain:

"Her hair is pink. So what?"

"Is… is that _normal_?"

"For her it is, yes." He cocked his head and a small but humourless smile played around his masked mouth; yes, she was an annoying fangirl, and yes, she may have bright _pink_ hair, and _yes_, she may have been one of – if not _the_ – most useless genin he had ever met, but she was, nonetheless, _his_ genin and, although she had yet to do something more impressive than her near-perfect chakra control, he would not allow her to be 'picked on' about her hair colour – she was already sensitive enough about her looks thanks to her large forehead alone. "Any other questions?" he carried on without waiting for an answer. "No? Good. In that case, I shall begin my introductions."

"Nasuada-sama, I believe it would be a good idea to hold off on introductions until we have returned to your base of operations. I feel it would be redundant to repeat them and we should be in a more _informal _atmosphere, especially if my suspicions should prove to be correct."

The tent walls gave everything inside a red hue, the command centre being the only splash of colour if the camp was seen from above. Two of Nasuada's guards had stayed outside the entrance flap to prevent anyone from entering and the other four were inside, one on either side of their leader and two flanking the newcomers.

Behind them, they could see Naruto chatting animatedly with Eragon, hands waving in the air to emphasise a point and his teammates knew what phrase was coming next, judging by his face.

"And I'm gonna be Hokage, dattebayo!"

_**Hello again – as you can see, I am still alive and have finished those evil things known as exams! Have you figured out what the blondes ar- were? If you guessed Barbies, you were right! (I really hate those evil things – so unrealistic) Also, in case you had not noticed, I intend to exaggerate certain aspects of their personalities (eg; Gai and Lee are going to be more obsessed with YOUTH (and I feel I may be enjoying writing them a little too much), Shikamaru's going to be even more 'lazy but brilliant' than normal and I'm toying with the idea of making Sasuke a (not-so?) closet pyromaniac which I am convinced all Uchiha are, deep down.)**_

_**Flames will be used to toast marshmallows for my reviewers with extra for those who have followed/favourited this. Those who leave them will be mocked mercilessly. Have a nice day :-)**_

_**And a special shout out to my new favourite reviewer, **__**Pie**__**. Yes, your review made me laugh, yes it is more then slightly ironic. Thank you for sharing your sense of humour. No, really; thanks!**_


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